Updated: March 18, 2023
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to buy Quake III Arena (and Team Arena), so me and my buddies can go about shooting and teabagging one another ever so gentlemanly. Before you say anything, yes, there are a dozen Quake clones and spinoffs, including a whole range of open-source options, which I've reviewed numerously in the past. Noted. Now, if you do wanna Quake, you might discover a wee problem.
The Steam version launches in a glorious 640x480px resolution. If you try to change it via the settings, you will only go up to about 1600px or so. The resolution won't change right away. But then, if you restart the game, it won't launch anymore. You will get an OpenGL error - could not load OpenGL subsystem. We need to fix that.
Solution
The workaround isn't trivial. First, open the game's installation folder. You can do that in Steam with a right-click on the game title > Manage > Browser local files. This will open a folder location, inside which you will find a whole bunch of files, but most importantly, quake3.exe and Team Arena.bat.
We now need to do two things:
- Create a shortcut that will link to quake3.exe - Either manually create a shortcut, or right-click on the file, drag it, release, and then select Create shortcut here. Right-click on this file > Properties. We need to edit the Target: field. In a moment.
- The second thing is, open the Team Arena.bat file in a text editor. Once again, we need to edit the launch command. The change here is identical to the change above.
What we need to do is add the following to the Target line and/or the launch line:
+set r_fullscreen "1" +set r_customaspect "1" +set r_customwidth "XXXX" +set r_customheight "YYYY" +set r_mode "-1"
The values of XXXX and YYYY should match your display resolution, or whatever you like. For instance:
+set r_fullscreen "1" +set r_customaspect "1" +set r_customwidth "2560" +set r_customheight "1440" +set r_mode "-1"
Thus, the full target line for Quake III becomes (Steam path and resolution will vary):
"[STEAM INSTALL PATH]\steamapps\common\Quake 3 Arena\quake3.exe" +set r_fullscreen "1" +set r_customaspect "1" +set r_customwidth "XXXX" +set r_customheight "YYYY" +set r_mode "-1"
Whereas the Team Arena.bat file will read:
.\quake3.exe +set fs_cdpath "C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\baseq3" +set fs_game missionpack +set r_fullscreen "1" +set r_customaspect "1" +set r_customwidth "2560" +set r_customheight "1440" +set r_mode "-1"
Launch the game and have fun
Now, Quake III will run correctly. The settings will still show the old resolution, but you can ignore it. Alas, no screenshots, because the game, for some reason, refuses to take screenshots with the default Steam F12 button. Something to explore and resolve, but no biggie. You will need to believe me that this works.
Conclusion
It's a shame that you need to resort to command-line tricks to run this old title properly, and most people will probably not be happy with it. Then again, if you're the kind of person still playing Quake III in 2023, then this little hurdle won't stop you. The error message is a bit alarming, but it probably stems from the fact that the game has never been designed for the kind of graphics we have nowadays.
And there you go. A somewhat hacky fix for an ancient game. But then, it will run and render correctly, and you can go about zooming and strafing and getting pwned by your friends. The multiplayer functionality is there, Internet or LAN, so if you do actually have friends, it's time to summon them. Game on.
Cheers.